


concerning the courtship of slade wilson (it is, indeed, very concerning)

by apprenticenanoswarm



Category: DCU (Comics), Deathstroke the Terminator (Comics), Nightwing (Comics), Titans (Comics)
Genre: M/M, Romantic Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-24
Updated: 2018-12-24
Packaged: 2019-09-26 04:43:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,153
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17135162
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/apprenticenanoswarm/pseuds/apprenticenanoswarm
Summary: Dick falls in love and it's awful.





	concerning the courtship of slade wilson (it is, indeed, very concerning)

 

Dick is nineteen when he realizes he’s got a crush on Slade Wilson.

Slade Wilson, AKA Deathstroke the Terminator.

Slade Wilson and his positively ludicrous bodycount.

Slave Wilson and his guns and his battlestaff and his fucking  _broadsword_ that has nearly ended Dick’s life three times. 

Slade Wilson and his pretty, white, silky-soft hair. 

It’s inconvenient. 

That’s what Dick tells himself. Inconvenient. A bother. A complication. Still, he’s been trained to cope, to compartmentalize. So he abruptly spirals down into one of the most intense depressions of his life and spends two months questioning everything he’s ever assumed about himself, from his heterosexuality to his ethics. Sleeping becomes a nightmare. Eating becomes impossible. He drops enough weight that Selina drops by and has a chat with him about anorexia and how it effects young men.

She ends up being the only one he tells the whole truth to for years.

“Kiddo,” she sighs, “when it comes to falling for terrible men, I’m just not the best person to give advice.”

Dicks bites his lip, feeling hollow and wishing she wouldn’t call him that. 

She pats him on the back awkwardly. “Maybe it’s not  _him_? Maybe you’ve just got a thing for his type.”

“His type?”

“Eye-patch. Wields a sword. Buccaneer boots. I’m saying you’ve got a pirate kink, Dick. Nothing to be ashamed of.”

She winks and he grins for the first time in weeks.

0

Dick is twenty-one when he realizes it’s way more than a crush.

No depression this time. He’s stronger. 

He just spends an hour screaming into a pillow until blood comes out of his mouth.

0

Dick is twenty-three when he tells Slade that he’s in love with him.

During a fight. While there’s a bullet lodged in his shoulder. While Deathstroke is holding the edge of his sword to Dick’s neck.

“Hey, so…wanted to mention: I love you. I’m _in_ love with you. It’s such a hassle.”

With a lopsided grin and a what-can-you-do shrug.

And honestly, Dick doesn’t blame Slade for his moment of obvious bewilderment. Nor does he blame Slade for kicking him in the stomach so hard Dick coughs up blood, before storming off without a word.

0

Dick is twenty-five when, on a devilish whim, he leaves a Valentine’s Day card in one of Slade’s safe houses.

A day later, every single one of Dick’s safe houses has been broken into and the trespasser has left hundreds and hundreds of pamphlets titled  _The Health Benefits of Spaying and Neutering Your Pup._

He laughs himself sick.

0

Dick is twenty-six when he tracks Slade down and eventually finds him in a brothel in Rome, engaged in a business transaction with a beautiful honey-blond man almost as densely muscled as Slade himself. 

The look on Slade’s face as Dick climbs in the window and pours himself a drink while the blond vigorously fucks Slade into the mattress is one Dick will cherish forever.

“I need information about some far-right terrorists operating in Munich. Thought maybe you could help me out?” Dicks says innocently as Slade, unable to stop himself, climaxes with a soft groan even though his pal has stopped screwing him.

Needless to say, Slade does not help Dick out. In fact, Slade chases him across the city for half a mile clad in nothing more than his cum-stained boxers and an aura of murderous rage.

0

Dick is twenty-seven when he hears that Slade’s in a hospital in Bangladesh. Details are sketchy.

_How? He doesn’t get sick, he doesn’t…_

“Kidney stones,” sighs the world’s greatest assassin.

The hospital bed is far too small for him, Dick thinks through the fog of jet lag and delayed panic, remembering vividly the miserable circus lions in their cage. “So you’re not dying.”

“My disappointment is as great as yours, I assure you.”

Dick flips him off and departs to find the biggest bunch of flowers money can buy.

0

Dick is twenty-eight when he kisses Slade.

He thinks he’s within his rights. The man just saved him from an explosion that would, at least, have taken one or more of his limbs off. The air is filled with burning embers. Slade’s handsome face is lit by firelight. It’s a good moment. About as romantic as they’re likely to get.

Slade kisses him back, hard.

For a moment. Then he yelps, shoves Dick away and bolts like a startled hare.

Every potent curse word Dick has ever heard spills from his mouth as his fist slams into the ground over and over. 

The upshot is that Dick doesn’t see Slade for another year and a half.

0

Dick is twenty-nine when he saves Slade from a gang of idiots Slade really should have been able to deal with himself.

That little mystery is solved as soon as he peals off Slade’s armor and his tattered, bloodied costume to start patching him up. Clearly visible ribs. He’s not been eating.

“You’re way too young for me, kiddo,” Slade says a few days later when he’s looking healthier, in his no-arguments voice. “I mean…don’t give me that look. I mean on the inside. Doesn’t matter what your body’s been up to, you’re still a kid in your head.”

Dick contemplates his life thus far, contemplates the multiple stab wounds he sustained tonight, contemplates the last time someone called him  _kiddo_ , and punches Slade right in his stupid pirate face.

0

Dick is thirty when Slade sends him a love letter.

It’s…kind of a lot.

No one’s ever called Dick things like  _that_ before.

No one’s ever expressed a desire to do things like  _that_ to Dick before.

He reads it twenty times and jerks off to it twice before destroying it as per the request in the last sentence.

A week later, Slade meets him outside a fancy restaurant in Beijing.

They exchange pleasantries. They eat a lovely dinner. They share dessert. They chat. Afterwards, they go dancing. Through it all, Slade treats Dick like a princess.

Eventually, Dick loses his patience and drags Slade into an alley by the beard to suck his cock.

“I’m trying to do this properly, you little  _shit_ ,” Slade hisses, his hips jerking as Dick’s fingers dig into his perfect, glorious ass.

Dick licks his balls and says, “Stop trying, babe.”

The next morning, in bed, Slade won’t stop checking him for bruises, insists that Dick eat a healthy breakfast before they have sex again, and changes the sheets while Dick’s showering.

Sidling up and pinching one of his lover’s nipples, Dick coos, “Has anyone ever told you that you’re a boring old man?”

Slade twitches, blushes –  _adorable_ – and mutters to himself, “What the hell have I gotten myself into?”

Dropping onto the bed, Dick cheerfully replies, “I know what you haven’t gotten into yet,” and is met with a whimper in response.

 

 

<3 <3 <3 end <3 <3 <3

 


End file.
